JTG Daugherty Racing’s move to its own shop and preparing its own cars was an offseason move with an eye on the long-term future of the race team. So while the team could have hoped for some short-term results, they aren’t necessarily surprised that improved performance hasn’t materialized over the first 12 weeks of 2012.

Bobby Labonte sits 27th in the series standings – the exact same spot he was a year ago when the organization was embedded in Michael Waltrip Racing and used cars prepared by the MWR shop.

“We're building as we go,” Labonte said. “I can always see improvements.

“Everybody is doing a great job. … We're making headway, it seems like, every weekend. We've still got some battles to challenge.”

Those battles include racecars and horsepower as the team continues the transition it started late last year.

JTG Daugherty Racing moved out of the MWR shop and back to its own facility in the offseason. It hired former Richard Childress Racing crew chief Todd Berrier as competition director and crew chief for Labonte.

The team had hoped to use cars from Red Bull Racing as part of the deal where MWR was going to buy Red Bull’s assets, but that deal collapsed and left the team scrambling to update old MWR cars in preparation for this year. It is using the independent engine provider, Triad, instead of the manufacturer-produced Toyota Racing Development engines that it had last year.

“As a single-car team, I’m really proud of all the guys,” said Labonte, the 2000 Cup champion. “We bought Michael Waltrip racecars from last year, year-before-type of cars, that we've made work."

“We're hoping to build some new cars here shortly.”

Team co-owner Brad Daugherty said the team needs to do some things better and Triad is working hard at trying to match what other teams are doing as far as horsepower and fuel mileage with the transition of the Sprint Cup cars to electronic fuel injection this year.

“We think Triad can do it for us,” Daugherty said. “We’ve struggled all year long with EFI stuff. … We’ve got good racecars, we’re just outpowered.

“We don’t qualify well. When tires fall off, we’re decent. On that last stop, everybody gets (fresh tires) and they pull off and they leave us again and we finish 27th. We’re not a 27th-place race team. We’re a top-20 race team, but we’ve got to start getting some finishes.”

Daugherty doesn’t believe the difference has been the move to the new shop, saying that the team’s infrastructure is much further along than he had predicted. Meanwhile, the MWR teams have flourished this year with new racecars and TRD engines that have improved through a merger of the TRD and Joe Gibbs Racing engine shops.

“The move has been difficult,” Daugherty said. “A lot of people have asked, ‘Why didn’t you just stay where you were at and what’s the difference from last year and this year?’

“Well, last year, we ran poorly and they did, too. They hired a lot of good people over at Waltrip and built some new racecars. … We have not given Bobby what he needs power-wise week-in and week-out to be successful. So we’ve got to get that right.”